Review: Duncanville “Das Banana Boot”;”Duncan’s New Word”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

No summer school! For once in his life, Duncan is off the hook in Das Banana Boot when it comes to summer school. After passing the presidential fitness test, he and his family are on their way to a relaxing family vacation on the beach. While they’re there, Duncan tries to make Mia jealous, Kimberly gets an artificial glow-up, and Jing becomes a true artist. But when a con artist  couple tries to get in the way of their family fun, the Harris’s end up unmasking a scam.

In Duncan’s New Word, Duncan finds himself in a heap of trouble when he cusses out his dad in front of an entire diner full of people. It messes Jack up, but not for the reason that’s expected. Instead, Jack respects Duncan for standing up to him and this leads to a long coming confrontation with his own father.

Our Take:

After a successful first season last year, Duncanville is back for season two. The Harris family are their usual lovable selves in the double header premiere: fun, relatable, and a little kooky. Das Banana Boot serves as a solid reintroduction of the group while Duncan’s New Word takes things a bit deeper by exploring Jack’s relationship with his own father.

The first episode of season two sees the family heading out of town. It might not seem like a plot that would lend itself to a first episode, but it actually allows the focus to be on the main cast as we get reacquainted with them, so I think it was a smart move to let the secondary characters stay on the back burner until episode two.

The episode itself is a lot of fun, with each character having an arc of their own to explore. Some are more successful than others, however. Kimberly is a fun character, but I’m a little tired of every animated teen girl’s arc revolving around hormones and chasing after cute boys. Jing’s pursuit of a painting that’s fridge worthy is much more novel, and just as funny. Duncan actually takes a backseat for a lot of the episode in favor of his parents’ getting their time to shine. Their storyline of uncovering a con job is a bit over the top in places, but overall it was pretty engaging.

The second part of the premiere Duncan’s New Word isn’t quite as fun, but it trades in a bit of the humor for some more thoughtful reflections on parenthood, father/son dynamics, and Jack and Duncan’s relationship. The ending really had me thinking that Jack and his dad had made up, but things in real life are always more complicated than that, so it was good to see the show trying to show that.

The two part premiere of Duncanville was a really fun hour of animated TV, complete with lots of laughs, plus some more affecting moments between Duncan and his dad. It’s been a while since viewers visited Duncanville, but I think it’s safe to say that the show is back in town and it’s still just as entertaining as ever.